No. 9 St. Mary's wakes up ready to win, beats No. 15 Broadneck, 11-9

Rather than allowing the bitter taste of a 14-6 loss to Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference rival Severn flavor the rest of its season, No. 9 St. Mary's took decisive action immediately after bowing to the No. 7 Admirals on Friday night.

The plan was simple enough in theory, just not as easy to implement in reality, considering the Saints had a date with neighboring Broadneck the following morning in Cape St. Claire.

In essence, what St. Mary's coach Kate Hickman was asking from her team was to develop collective short-term memory loss as quickly as possible.

"I told them that they didn't do this right, and they did that wrong against Severn," she said. "And then I asked them, 'Are we done talking about Severn now?'"

The Saints responded as well as Hickman could have expected, using a seven-goal outburst from attacker Tara Siefert and brilliant goaltending from Haelle Chomo (21 saves) to beat the No. 15 Bruins, 11-9, on Saturday.

St. Mary's only trailed once in the nonleague game, and that was at 1-0.

After that, the Saints acted as though they had not a care in the world, staying even with their public school rival in a 6-6 opening period and pulling away after the intermission.

One of the reasons for that feeling was Siefert, who came through almost every time St. Mary's needed a goal.

The few times the Bruins tried to face-guard the Navy-bound senior, she still found ways to get open.

Siefert had another reason for unleashing one of her best games against Broadneck.

"I used to go to Severna Park, and they were one of our biggest rivals," she said.

Yet the main source of her success came from the way she used her 6-foot frame to fire away at Bruin goalies Kayla Koch and Catrina Dubianski, who combined for six saves.

"I've seen a lot of tall girls who don't play up to their size," Hickman said. "They play smaller. Not Tara. She uses her size to her advantage."

As Chomo can attest, facing Siefert's sizzling shots can be a daunting task, knowing that the release-point on her overhand delivery allows the ball's trajectory to come from an unusually high angle.

"With her height, when she shoots it goes on such a downward plane, it makes it really difficult for any goalie," said Chomo, who has committed to Georgetown. "I know I wouldn't want to have to stop her."

Chomo had plenty of stopping to do of her own. After a 16-save effort in a lost to No. 11 John Carroll last week, the junior picked it up a notch against the Bruins.

She said that she played well in the first half and then went into serious lockdown mode in the final period.

"I was seeing it well, early, but a few of their shots hit my stick, my body," she said. "In the second half, I made a bargain with myself to stay focused the whole 25 minutes, and I lived up to that bargain."

She had help from defender Liz Adams, who shut out Broadneck's Arden Smith.

Bruins coach Katy Kelley credited Chomo for her performance but said she was displeased with Broadneck's shooting accuracy.

"We had the same amount of opportunities they did," she said. "We just didn't capitalize on ours."

Still, Ellie McNulty (two goals, one assist), Cassie Hertzig (one, three) and Natalie Hendricks (three goals) were able to keep the Bruins within striking distance for most of the game.